About “Square Dance”

Off The Eminem Show, this song has political roots while also serving as a diss towards Canibus.

In fact, the song may be a direct response to Canibus’s song “Draft Me,” in which Canibus 1) threatens an unnamed rival and 2) expresses a desire to fight in the war on terror, even including a quote by George Bush at the end of the song. In “Square Dance”, Eminem attacks Canibus and delivers an anti-draft, anti-war, anti-Bush message.

What have the artists said about the song?

In his book The Way I Am (p. 173) Eminem revealed that he worked on the music for this song between scenes on the set of his movie Eight Mile. He hummed his idea for the bass line to Jeff Bass and Luis Resto, who always were able to give him what he wanted after he hummed something just one time.